Commentary: Is Malaysia going the Sri Lankan way?

Like the Pakistan army, which has jihad as its official motto, the rulers of Malaysia claim to represent the "moderate" face of Islam. However, ever since former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad introduced Wahabbism Lite into Malaysia in 1981, the practice of discriminating against all other creeds has evolved.

Across Malaysia today there is a rolling back of the 2,000-year-old culture of the Malays, brought with the Chola and Srivijaya kings from India. In place of this tolerant and syncretic tradition -- which is still strong in neighboring Indonesia despite attacks from cultural extremists -- some of the Malaysian leaders have sought to introduce the harsh tones of the Saudi desert and the mindset of the ancient Bedouin, as far as possible in a modern economy.

The veil and the beard are now ubiquitous throughout Malaysia, with some enclaves already implementing a Wahabbi Lite version of what is wrongly termed "sharia" law, a system of jurisprudence avoided by all but states such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Cash and preachers from Saudi Arabia and other countries linked to the Wahabbi International have been allowed to enter Malaysia freely. Politicians from the country's United Malays National Organization maintain cordial links with the Pakistan army. Mahathir himself even adopted a Pakistani boy.

Ironically, Mahathir Mohammad's contribution to the religious radicalization of Malaysia has been covered up by his high-decibel anti-Western rhetoric, which has given him a "nationalist" image. A genuine nationalist would have sought to unify rather than divide Malaysian society. But under Mahathir, Malay Muslims -- especially the Wahabbi element -- were aggressively favored by the state over the Chinese and the Indians, even those who were themselves Muslim.

Both the army and the police force have become instruments of Malay privilege. After nearly three decades of state-sanctioned repression, it was no surprise that a group of Malaysian Hindus, who make up 2 million of the country's population at the bottom of the economic ladder, mustered the courage to stage a peaceful protest against the destruction of several dozen temples by the Malaysian authorities, demolitions conducted for the most part without explanation or compensation.

The ruling elite has thus far succeeded in keeping the Muslims within the Malaysian Indian community away from the agitation, arguing that the destruction of temples, several of them of historical value, had no effect on them as Muslims. Yet the anger of the Malaysian Indian community is palpable and has not been doused by denunciations from top Malaysian officials, including the regime's "Indian" face, minister Sami Velu.

Malaysia's state-sanctioned policies against ethnic Indians resemble those introduced in the 1950s by Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka, who made it exceedingly difficult for Sri Lankan Tamils to get a university education or a government job. After more than 16 years of such discrimination, several Tamils embraced the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and launched a violent struggle that has continued for more than a quarter of a century.

The dirt-poor, seething Malaysian Tamils, including Muslims, are ideal recruiting material for a local variant of the LTTE, or even a branch of the Sri Lankan organization, eager to burnish its Tamil credentials worldwide. Rather than using police and other security agencies to batter its own citizens into submission while billing itself a democratic state, the Malaysian government should study the history books to avoid the quagmire that the Sinhalese fanatics landed in by their anti-Tamil policies.

Unlike China, which stays out of issues where people of Chinese ethnic origin are involved, India's domestic politics make it mandatory for the New Delhi government to seek justice for ethnic Indians, especially in a country like Malaysia, which is within its geographical back yard and with which it has close cultural and business links.

In a global society, it is no longer possible for Malaysia's Malay leaders to wall off their country from international scrutiny. Thanks to their bitter experiences in Sri Lanka, Tamils worldwide have built up a substantial network of information outlets. Several of these are disseminating details of ongoing policies designed to confine them to the margins of the Malaysian economy and society.

The new prime minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Badawi, has demonstrated a moderate and modernizing mindset, and has quietly reversed some of the Wahabbi Lite policies introduced by his fiery predecessor. Interestingly, several key leaders of the UMNO, including some ministers, have now come out against the destruction of the temples that caused the present flare-up. Those responsible have been pulled up and warned to stop, even though official rhetoric against the organizers of the protest continues.

In a throwback to the Mahathir era, when dissent could be punished by imprisonment on trumped-up charges of sodomy, the organizers of this entirely peaceful protest have been prosecuted for "sedition" against the state. In actuality, it is those responsible for creating a system of ethnic-based privilege and religion-based discrimination that should be booked under such laws, for they are putting at risk Malaysia's future as a tranquil and prospering country.

The poisoned fruits of the Mahathir era have now emerged in the open, but the odds are that the new dispensation will see in the recent agitation -- and the worldwide publicity that followed -- a wake-up call to halt and reverse the country's steady retrogression into a Wahhabi Lite state, along with the likes of Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Prime Minister Badawi is pushing for Malaysia to join the front rank of the "knowledge" states, able to compete globally with India or even in time the European Union. This is possible, but only once Malaysia frees itself from the legacy of religious and ethnic discrimination that has led to the alienation of those outside the fold of privilege.

(Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University. ©Copyright M.D. Nalapat.)

So you’re saying that these third world countries plays the US for suckers, then hates the US because they can play the US for suckers?

No. They hate the US because they see television, and movies, and they see how Americans live. Then they look around at how they live, and are angry. They are told by their ‘spiritual leaders’ that the unholy Americans are taking everything away for themselves, and they are angry.

The US has been the ‘Great Satan’ for a very long time, yet secretly they envy the US and other countries such as India who have a better life. As an example, I give to you those great Martyrs that died on 9/11, but were seen on surveillance videos just days prior going to bars and strip clubs.

"I Hate America (give me an XBox.)" "Death to Europe (give me a BMW.)" "Death to Israel (give me orange groves in the desert.)"

No, they hold America by its balls because we let them. We're too sensitive to carpet bomb their mosques. We're the 'good guys' and have to play by the rules. And if just one soldier doesn't, it's front page news all over the world. But when thousands die at the hands of an Ayatollah or South American dictator, nobody notices or cares.

Americans stacking prisoners in a pyramid is torture, but generator wires to the genitals and rape rooms are OK as long as it's in the name of Allah.

The US and the West in general cares what the rest of the world thinks about them. They want the rest of the world to like them. They can't understand that those third world dictators need to have an enemy to justify their own existence. They don't have the ability to be ruthless, therefore they allow pissant little dictators hold them by the balls.

The problems between Pakistan and India I will admit that I do not fully understand. I do know historically about the atrocities that occured in 1947 with the Partition. I will also admit that I never understood the Troubles in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and Protestents.

That's why we go in to places like Iraq, overthrow a brutal dictator, then are astonished when the population hates us still. We can't understand why countries like Pakistan can't keep their tribal areas under control.

As Rodney King said in the aftermath of the L.A. riots which were sparked by his own beating: "Can't we just get along?"

Nope.

“So you’re saying that these third world countries plays the US for suckers, then hates the US because they can play the US for suckers?
No. They hate the US because they see television, and movies, and they see how Americans live. Then they look around at how they live, and are angry. They are told by their ‘spiritual leaders’ that the unholy Americans are taking everything away for themselves, and they are angry.”

THATS exactly the misconception I am talking about. See? You have set the glaring example that Americans have just no idea why the world hates them so much. You are merely parroting your Fox-CNN nonsense.

The worst hatred for America is among petro-dollar rich countries in the Arab middle east. You can witness it even among western educated Muslims in the sub continent, among relatively affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, UAE, Malaysia and Indonesia, among America’s allies and otherwise well to do countries like Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey.

You theory that poor countries are jealous of America’s affluence is your American media propaganda nonsense. Had that been the case then all of Indian subcontinent (not just Pakistan) and Africa would have been anti-American, and that irrespective of religion.

People hate America for only one reason. THE WAHABBI VIRUS. There are places in Afghanistan and Pakistan where there is no tv let alone satellite and cable channels. People are illiterate and so out of touch with the rest of the world that their only knowledge about the US comes NOT from tv or movies but from the Mullahs. So if the Mullahs say that the US is systematically carrying out genocide of Muslims all over the world, they believe it. If they actually had the opportunity to watch the movies and tv programming they would still have a better understanding of America. Its not for no reason that even Indian channels are banned by their leaders who dont want outside influence to interfere with their Wahabbi agenda.

I have know dirt poor guys in India who watch American affluence on tv and are least bothered by it, they in fact lead happier lives then many affluent Americans. American media morons think its their affluence that creating all the jealousy and anger.......and so they must give the Muslims monetary aid. THAT is the fallacy I am talking about. Wahabbi indoctrination has created their anger against US, not the tv or movies that project the supposed affluence of American lives.

And about how they hold America by its balls? The dictators of Islamic countries who play America’s lackey know the trick. It has been mastered over decades. They are the ones who hold America by its balls. You would think they are your client states? Reality is otherwise. The the unbridled Wahabbism the “moderate secular”-America’s ally-dictators themselves promote in their country creates a situation where US would do anything to keep the dictator from falling for the fear of the radicals. These “allies” are your worst enemies.

From Osama Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein, from Ayathollah Khomeini to the Mullah Omar and the Mujahideens of Afghanistan........ all of these guys who have in the past or present been fighting the US have at some point used America’s own damn money and weaponry. Muslim countries and their leaders are enemies, who will use your own damn money to fight you.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.